This is evidently a pretty crucial read for navigating a world shaped by mass-media forces. I’m suprised I am just now getting to it, but I never really took any kind of communications / media courses in college, so I’ve been very hit-and-miss in this area. Looks very perceptive and provocative so far, though it probably seems a lot less radical / revolutionary now than when it was written.

The seminal book on media. Lots of interesting ideas and predictions about media, but I am always put off when an author insinuates their true forte when riding outside of it. In this case, McLuhan uses a lot ink to remind us that he is an English professor. Those parts of the book fall falt for me, but maybe it impresses the academia. I dropped it somewhere in the chapter on the individual forms of media. Will return to it soon.